# What would happen if Hillary runs for 2012? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 18, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684 "2011-09-18T02:06:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/21 "2011-09-20T13:41:40Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > What, pray tell, can they do to enforce that? Convince the person that his/her candidacy would most likely lead to a Republican winning the general election and that he/she would be blamed. Democrats, unlike Republicans I’ve seen lately, listen to such logic. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/22 "2011-09-21T20:56:59Z")
Look no further than Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy in 1980. Rift in the party? Check. Incumbent winning despite the challenge? Check. Pyrrihic victory because the party couldn’t pull together for the general election? Check. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/23 "2011-09-21T21:01:40Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Convince the person that his/her candidacy would most likely lead to a Republican winning the general election and that he/she would be blamed. Democrats, unlike Republicans I’ve seen lately, listen to such logic. 😉 Oh, I don’t know. I remember Nader on election day 2004 telling people that hadn’t voted for him yet to vote for Kerry rather than Nader. That was really helpful…at around 7PM CST. Way to be pragmatic, Ralph. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/24 "2011-09-22T01:33:12Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Look no further than Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy in 1980. Rift in the party? Check. Incumbent winning despite the challenge? Check. Pyrrihic victory because the party couldn’t pull together for the general election? Check. Over 3 decades ago. Most of you were not aware of politics back then. In political reality, that is a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/25 "2011-09-22T02:20:51Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Look no further than Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy in 1980. Rift in the party? Check. Incumbent winning despite the challenge? Check. Pyrrihic victory because the party couldn’t pull together for the general election? Check. What does “couldn’t pull together” mean, exactly? Were there a significant bunch of disgruntled Teddy voters who, when their guy didn’t get the nom, just bowed out of the general and thought voting for the Dem incumbent was beneath them somehow? And Carter has smooth sailing, absolutely no worries mate, if he didn’t have said challenge? The next time I see someone stating this, I am going to demand a cite. Hell I’ll demand one right now. AFAICT, Carter lost because of his various mistakes during his term, not because someone primaried him and then this somehow “split” his otherwise monolithic support. Weak incumbents are primaried precisely because they are perceived as being weak; primarying them doesn’t make them (or their support) weak, that horse has already fled the barn by that point. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/26 "2011-09-22T20:44:25Z")
Surely you all have seen her recently. She looks on the verge of complete exhaustion, and I doubt that she will serve a second term as SOS. Running for POTUS takes a lot of energy and money, so I would be very surprised to see her come in even as a dark horse candidate. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Oscie\_Lipshitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85e7bf/32.png) [@Big\_Oscie\_Lipshitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Oscie_Lipshitz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/27 "2011-10-03T06:25:15Z")
I have to agree that Hillary appears exhausted by her heroic efforts as SOS. I would love to see her get three or four years R&R and run in 2016, but Israel will be our 51st state and (NutenYahoo) as Guvner before she could pull it off in 2012. Besides your forgetting about armageddon! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/28 "2011-10-03T10:54:49Z")
It’s not going to happen. If Obama were so unpopular as to make this plausible, that would be a problem for her, too, since she’s a part of his administration. She’ll serve out the rest of this term and retire to professorships and book writing. She’s been very plain about this since taking office. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/29 "2011-10-03T16:00:29Z")
Have there been any Democrats urging her to run, or only “helpful” Republicans like Darth Cheney who suggest that she run for POTUS in 2012? AFAIK, only Cheney and his minions have urged Mrs. Clinton to run. Nobody in their right minds have suggested it yet. Her running is a Republican pipe dream, just like saying tax cuts lead to economic growth. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/30 "2011-10-03T16:02:22Z")
Not just Republicans; also the class of political commentators/journalists who really want something (anything) to report on in the Democratic nomination process. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684/31 "2011-10-05T21:31:25Z")
More interesting tidbits from the new CNN/ORC poll: Hillary Clinton remains one of the most popular public figures in American politics, with a 69 percent favorable rating and a 26 just unfavorable rating. > **[Americans Dislike the Tea Party More Than Ever Before](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/tea-party-poll-unpopular/)** > > It’s hard out there for a tea partier. The upstart conservative movement was all the rage in the summer of 2009, and channeled that energy into a wave of victories in the 2010 midterm elections, sending dozens of hard-line, intransigent Republicans... * * * When incumbent presidents were challenged in primaries in 1968, 1976, and 1980, they were not reelected. I would only want Hillary Clinton to run with President Obama’s approval. There is a precedent for this. In 1952 President Truman’s approval rating declined to 22 percent. He talked Adlai Stevenson into running. Stevenson lost, but he lost to a war hero. No living Republican has the stature of Gen. Eisenhower. I am quite honestly disappointed with President Obama. He made a critical mistake by forcing through a health plan most Americans do not like, while the unemployment rate continued to rise. Even when public opinion supports him he loses fights with the Republicans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-hillary-runs-for-2012/596684.md?page=1)